Businesses and individuals are increasingly utilizing social media platforms for marketing, employee recognition, and otherwise. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, SalesForce, LinkedIn, and others allow companies and individuals to create profiles. Often, these sites allow a user to display on its profile certain indications referred to commonly as “badges.” Badges indicate to viewers that the owner of the profile has performed various tasks, visited various websites, or earned awards. Users may also use badges to indicate where they work, their hobbies, and establishments or products they enjoy.
Many social media platforms provide a selection of pre-determined badges for users to choose from or earn. If an individual or business wishes to make its own custom badge, that individual must either have advanced design skills or must hire a skilled designer to create the badge. Designing a badge is time consuming and expensive. Online research shows that custom badge development can cost upwards of $25,000. Due to the time and expense involved, individuals and companies find it relatively prohibitive to create their own badges for social media use. Additionally, software developers desiring to integrate badges into software programs may find doing so cost or time prohibitive.